Top Annoying Misnaming People Do

I agree with the confusing characters from other shows thing... I remember several years ago when Animal Planet did a special counting down the top 50 TV animals of all time (Big Bird was 16, Kermit was 2); there was celebrity commentary, but half-way through the special, there was a brief segment where the celebrities talked about their specific favorites (Big Bird mentioned Snuffy was his favorite "am-i-nal") - David Hyde Pierce said "I like Animal on Sesame Street... you know, the *Immitates Animal*? That guy... between him or the Cookie Monster".

These are slightly annoying but i don't really get bothered by these (unless they pop up in an article by a "professional" writer)...

Statler and Waldorf don't often refer to each other by name or get called by name as much by the other characters - i'm sure a lot of big Muppet fans learned their names last.

The whole Disney deal was such a weird mess with lots of on-again off-again history, the whole "when DID they own the characters" topic can confuse people who even make a serious attempt to keep on top of these things.

Aside from Henson/Oz (and now Kevin Clash to a smaller degree), the Muppeteers are pretty anoymous to most people - even casual fans (the ones that love them throughout their life but not to the degree where they follow Muppet sites or join forums). I HATE seeing the "Jim's son" myth in print from someone calling them a journalist or writer but when it comes from just a random person from the general public, i just shrug it off as a testiment to Steve's talent.

Click to expand...

I agree, I can't blame people for not knowing Disney owns the Muppets. The news of their buy was almost 6 years ago, and it has fallen way back into people's memory. And they insist on pupping "Muppet Studios" or "Muppets Holding LLC" on all the products or ads/clips/sites, which I think is kind of cool.

I never heard the "Ernie died of AIDS" or "Jim Henson died of AIDS" thing; however for people to understand why there is a Muppet character with AIDS(Kami) they have to first understand the absolute seriousness and dire situation of pediatric AIDS in many African countries. People in America are just ignorant.

I never heard the "Ernie died of AIDS" or "Jim Henson died of AIDS" thing; however for people to understand why there is a Muppet character with AIDS(Kami) they have to first understand the absolute seriousness and dire situation of pediatric AIDS in many African countries. People in America are just ignorant.

Click to expand...

Yeah, Richard Hunt, sadly, is the one who died of AIDS, such a tragedy, but at least he took it well.

Not to be a nitpicker or anything, but Kami doesn't have AIDS, she is HIV+... which DOES lead to AIDS, but not really that much of an issue. In respect to some of my friends here, I'm not going to go into a discussion as why there's a common misconception with Americans about HIV/AIDS which caused the outrage over Kami... but I will admit, a friend of mine in Israel asked me why Americans did make such a big deal out of a Muppet character being HIV+, and I explained to her the misconception that plagues America regarding the disease.

I think that was the worst one of all. Not so much the whole "Sesame Street is teaching AIDS" bullcrap that kept getting kicked around, but the whole notion that we're the only country that has problems, and ignoring the fact it was to educate people in Africa, where the disease spread wildly and is still a problem today. I don't wanna get into the whole thing, and we know what I'm talking about... it doesn't upset me just as a Muppets/Sesame Street fan... it upsets me as someone that genuinely cares that other people in less fortunate countries have these sorts of problems and no one wants to read the whole 2 inch article in the papers about it.

Click to expand...

As I've always said, most Americans are not just ethno-geocentric, but either plain clueless or massively ignorant.
People would do good to see When Muppets Dream Of Peace or The World According to Sesame Street.

I don't think I've ever had that problem... but I've been lucky myself. Again, every Saturday Morning, they actually re-ran olsd TMS episodes before the network took over and broadcast their cartoons... so I was able to see Muppet Babies and The Muppet show on the same day.

Click to expand...

Yep, I remember the(albeit sometimes truncated) TMS/MB combo Nick Jr often played. And even before that, back in the mid to late 80's TMS was always on.

I never liked that. That's like saying that Fred Flinstone was a member of the Scooby-Doo team, and not a general sense of something bigger. They are made by the same people, and they do enjoy the occasional crossover segment (Movies, specials...etc.) but Miss Piggy's Sesame Street appearance was a picture on a desk. Same with Dr. Teeth's photo in the Upstairs/Downstairs skit.

When Rowlf gets called Ralph tends to bug me. XPPP It's not that hard, people.

Click to expand...

I could've sworn I saw a sketch of Rowlf of Jim Henson's or something that says "Ralph". Also, on Muppet Family Christmas, Fozzie clearly calls him Ralph. I think "Rowlf" is Rowlf's way of saying "Ralph", kinda like how Scooby speaks in "doggie" English.

These two are just from people not knowing grammar.
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew is named after a scientific instrument- a Bunsen burner, which in turn is named after Robert Bunsen.
(I'm guessing the Honeydew part is from honeydew melon.)
And Beaker is named after a scientific instrument- a beaker. That's how the word is spelt.

I got annoyed when people called Kermit the Frog, Hermit the Frog (yes I've heard people say that)
Labeling the Muppet show as a "kid's show" I mean sure kids can enjoy but it wasn't dumb down so that ONLY kids can enjoy it.
Mispelling Fozzie as Fozzy or Janice as Janis
calling Animal a "muppet monster"
When people say things like Labyrinth, Dark Crystal and Dinosaurs are muppets, when actually they were "creatures"
When people call Miss. Piggy, Mrs. Piggy (I know it's a little detail, but it's still annoying)

As for as misconceptions and/or urban legends go...
the whole Kami thing (as mention)
A Sesame Street Muppet either has died or will die soon, usually Ernie, Bert or Grover falls into this group and it usually cause of cancer, aids, or a car accident.
Bert and Ernie are gay, that's one I wish would just die already the most. (I mean it's one thing when shows like Madtv or Family Guy make jokes about that, but it really annoys me when people think that's an honest to god fact and in some cases actually attack them for that)
Cookie Monster being changed to Veggie Monster
Oscar the Grouch is an "evil character" on Sesame Street (I don't know why, but that one really bugs me) and he's gotten a lot "softer" or "nicer" over the years. The fact is Oscar gets annoyed by other Sesame Street characters, but he still cares for them. He doesn't want to see bad things happen to them or anything like that.

On Halloween, when I wore my Super Grover costume everyone in my grade got to go down to my old elementary school where my mom works now. I stopped by the class she teaches in and all the kids thought I was Elmo. I told my mom about this later and she told me the bitter truth: Most younger kids don't watch PBS anymore, they go right to the Disney Channel.

Oh, and I was continually mistaken for Cookie Monster by just about everyone else except for most of my older classmates and teachers.

I can excuse pretty much any mistakes from a little kid - hey, even a young girl who was either a huge Muppet fan and/or had a parent that was who had a chance to go up onstage on the Bonnie Hunt Show and see Oscar up close thought she was seeing Elmo (to which Oscar hilariously replied "I've never been so insulted in my life!")

They are made by the same people, and they do enjoy the occasional crossover segment (Movies, specials...etc.) but Miss Piggy's Sesame Street appearance was a picture on a desk. Same with Dr. Teeth's photo in the Upstairs/Downstairs skit.

Click to expand...

Seriously? That's awesome! I knew about Miss Piggy's picture showing on a Sesame Street sketch, but I didn't realize Dr. Teeth's photo was in a sketch too! Cool! I will have to look this up now.